Metamaterials have been shown as an effective way to enhance the engineering and manipulating of plasmon and photon in the area of optics. By using “artificial atoms” such as split ring resonators (SRRs) within a metamaterial, metamaterials with optical properties beyond the limitations of conventional, naturally occurring material or composites may be obtained. Realization of electromagnetic response for metamaterials in the visible and infrared (vis-IR) regions may open up a whole new range of photonic application areas, such as security imaging, remote sensing, and switchable and transformable optical frequency resonant devices.
Provision of flexibility to metamaterials in various applications, in particular, sensing is also of interest. Integration of functional, high-performance electronic devices onto mechanically flexible and deformable substrates offers significant promise in flexible electronics, such as flexible displays, solar cells, nanowire electronics, and sensing circuitry. Compared to rigid substrates such as silicon and glass, flexible and stretchable plastic or elastomer based substrates exhibit great advantages of flexibility, transparency, lightweight, portability, low cost, conformable manipulation, and biocompatibility. On the other hand, recent development of transformation optics based on topological design and manipulation of light renders flexible functional optics an attractive option to control optical waves, which may in turn lead to integration of functional flexible photonic devices as demonstrated in strained tunability applications. In other application areas, for example, flexibility in metamaterials may make it possible to “wrap” light-weight, transparent metamaterials around important objects to function as an optical cloak. Current state of the art methods to fabricate metamaterials, in particular metamaterials based on flexible materials, include use of an indirect transfer method to embed metamaterials into flexible elastomeric matrix after the metamaterials have been fabricated onto rigid and flat substrates, such as silicon and quartz. However, these methods suffer from drawbacks, such as limitations relating to resolution of metamaterials obtained, and the lengthy process sequences required. This is particularly in the case for applications in the visible and infrared range, given the extremely high resolution of metamaterials required.
In view of the above, there is a need for an improved method to generate a metamaterial and a metamaterial generated thereof that alleviates at least some of the above-mentioned problems.